In the field of general civil aviation only 2% of the planes in the air are air carriers. There are some 225,000 small aircraft in the skies. While there are vast areas in which these aircraft can travel, some thirty times a year two such craft find themselves in the same airspace at the same time. In at least half of the resulting crashes there are fatalities.
Efficient systems have been developed to track the aircraft in any locality through the ground based Air Traffic Control System (ATCS). In the future more advanced computers and automation may be developed with verbal computer-generated commands to pilots. Advanced technology notwithstanding, the ultimate responsibility for collision avoidance lies with the aircraft pilots, not with the Air Traffic Controllers. Means are required to provide a pilot with an indication of the location of a nearby aircraft which does not distract the pilot's view of the airspace ahead and within his angle of view. Most prior art systems for collision avoidance provide a radar display of some character. This requires a pilot to observe a cathode ray or other display, typically disposed on the pilot's instrument panel that may distract the pilot from the field of view about the aircraft.